Ben Chan brings in sexy Casadei, a fave of Victoria Beckham and Angelina Jolie

MANILA, Philippines - Retail icon Ben Chan sure knows his market. On an Instagram page of @benchtm, it says that there are two things that might catch the eye of women — handsome men and stunning shoes.Bench followers know by now that every event hosted by Ben is always well-attended by his good-looking endorsers. And as for stunning shoes, all eyes were on the sexiest new shoe brand in Manila — the Italian brand Casadei, which is worn by some of the most beautiful women in the world  like Victoria Beckham,Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez and Lupita Nyong'o.

Ben has already captured a huge chunk of Manila's shoe lovers with his bestselling brands like Charles & Keith, Aldo, Call It Spring, Pedro, Lyn and Repetto. In select Bench stores, he has shoe brands you see in curated concept stores like Colette in Paris, Dover Street Market in London, and Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles and New York. These are the French leisure brands Rivieras, Swear x Keith Haring, and East Land x Mark McNairy.

And now, Casadei from Italy. “Casadei consistently comes up with sensible,sexy shoe designs perfect for the modern Manila market of well-traveled, fashion-forward woman,” explains Ben.“Casadei is an Italian brand with a rich history of design and artisanal tradition for the past 50 years. It has that distinct made-in-Italy standard.”

Ben says it is always worth investing in a good pair of shoes.. “We may lose or gain weight, and thus change our clothing size,but our shoe size hardly changes.”

At the opening of Casadei on the second floor of Bonifacio High Street Central C1 building last Thursday, the bestseller was Blade, a pointy-toe pump with a thin semi-curved metal heel in red, black and nude. It is a red carpet favorite.

So how many pairs of shoes does an average fashionista own? “We don’t have data,” Ben says. Only personable accounts of the fashionable women we know. Their answer is most often “never enough.”

Yes, Ben Chan  knows his market well.